Everton's Joleon Lescott, on his first international start, was deployed in a narrow position against a five-man Russian midfield. "You could see in the first half that we had two strikers and they were playing with Lescott rather inside as a central defender with Rio Ferdinand and Sol Campbell," said Hiddink. "So in the first half we had a lot of space on the right side and so we could penetrate there; although our attacking was not fine-tuned we still had that threat. That was why I changed it at half-time; they were vulnerable that side. And I like making [the left winger] Joe Cole a left full-back: you get rid of one of their attackers. That is why we could damage them."

McClaren refused to say if his tactics had invited Russia's wide players to attack. Instead he questioned the equaliser, a penalty given after Wayne Rooney tripped Konstantin Zyryanov outside the area.

"It's an absolute disgrace," he said. "It's outside the box. The linesman didn't give it. It was the referee from quite some distance. Things like that turn games."

Were it not for that decision, McClaren contended, England would "absolutely" have won the game; that did not explain why England then conceded a second goal within five minutes.

Asked if he had done anything wrong, McClaren said: "I can't reflect on the detail right now. I have not seen the flow of the game. That decision has cost us. We went from that to losing the game. I can't fault players' attitude or their endeavour.

"We were in control, defending magnificently. No one likes losing games and I don't like losing games. Five minutes of madness have cost us. The players are devastated. We have to stick together. We were away from home, Russia had a lot of possession, they hardly had a shot at goal."

Steven Gerrard missed a second-half opportunity when Gareth Barry's free-kick fell to the Liverpool captain eight yards out. Unmarked, he skewed his shot wide. McClaren refused to single out his captain. "We nearly got a second goal ourselves," he said. "It's disappointing but that's international football."